As a small business owner, your days are hectic, and you have a lot going on. To help reduce the chaos and keep things in perspective, take some time to get organized. It’ll help make everything else go much more smoothly both at work and at home. You’ll also be able to have a clear mind without the distractions of a cluttered email inbox and desk, making it easier to put all your energy into working with your clients. Here are five simple tips to help you stay organized and keep your business running smoothly.
1. Keep Your Office Space Clean
First and foremost, it’s important to clean off your desk every night after you’re done with work. Of course, you’re going to have paperwork, notes, sketches, or food wrappers scattered around after a long day, however, always take a quick minute to tidy up before you’re done working for the day. When you get back to work the next morning, you’ll be ready to focus on taking on the world and stop worrying about a cluttered workspace.
2. Use an Online Organizer
To make sure that I’m productive and stay on top of my meeting schedule, an online calendar and schedule is a must! I also use it to keep track of tasks that I’ve assigned to team members to make sure we’re all on the same page. My personal favorite online organizer is Trello, but there are plenty of options out there for you to try. The best part is most of them offer free versions, so you don’t have to worry about paying to stay organized.
3. Schedule Your Social Media Posts in Advance
This is one of my favorite time-saving tricks and is also a great way to stay organized! My social media manager and I schedule out time to create a month’s worth of social media posts and schedule them in bulk. After that, I’m done for an ENTIRE month! It saves me so much time and helps relieve the stress of scheduling a time to post every day. I used a tool called CoSchedule which I did a review on. There are plenty of free options, so you should be able to find one that works well for the platforms you like to use most.
4. Keep All Your Passwords in One Secure Location
It can be so tricky to try and remember all my passwords and my clients passwords, especially when I try not to use the same one for everything. I recommend finding a secure app or location on your computer where you can have them all in one centralized location to avoid scrambling to find the one you need. I use LastPass and let me tell you it is a lifesaver!
5. Schedule Time to Clear Your Email Inbox
Now this last tip is one that I need to do better with. We all have so many emails coming in every day, it can easily get overwhelming trying to manage them all. Try to take 15 minutes every week to clean out your inbox. It’s also helpful to create a folder for each client or for urgent emails that you need to respond to by the end of the day. Come up with a system that works for you to help you stay organized when it comes to your email inbox.
There are plenty of other tips out there to help you keep your small business organized and help you stay motivated throughout the day. These are just a few of my favorites that are simple but will help you get awesome results. Keeping your small business organized will allow you to focus on more important tasks!